Heard in the Hall

Your post is the first post. What posts is he talking about?

Frank is right on this one -- Doc runs the RDA like his own personal king making machine, a personal fiefdom. The result is no significant movement by ANY developer except the private market. The RDA is the biggest delinquent property tax owner in the city because it can't turn what it holds around in an open, fair, competitive, process such as is used in every city -- auction, competitive identity sealed bidding, you name it, you don't see it from the Doc RDA. Or, the RDA-BO -- Reach Down And Bend Over.

Doc's process literally creates more blight than all of city council or the mayor could ever address. It will take an honest liquidation of properties that would grow a tax base of owners who pay taxes to schools, safety, and the city.

Now is Nutter's chance to save the city money by instituting reforms other cities did to save costs and decrease the budget long ago -- open shop.

Doc would dry up and blow away as RDA chair and as union thorn if Philly was open shop -- or where the city could hire nonunion if it helped meet legit goals like budget or minority minimums.

Philly isn't really served anymore by unions from the Mondale era. It keeps costs high, and timelines unnecessarily elongated.

If Nutter wants to rock and roll, he really has to be honest about the worth of holding on to the obstacles.

Frank is right on this one. The RDA holds and does nothing with hundreds of properties in DiCicco's district, and even Frank can't get a straight answer about the status.

It's all become a land giveaway poverty pimp-a-thon of corrupt Dems playing ghettopoly. As long as the RDA (Doc) thinks it has a carrot, it has a funding stream.

Thing is, do we really think we have to be this low to be the Democrat voice? Is that how Obama did it? Chicago?

In fact, they UNDID the low income housing scam aka kickbacks and prosecuted, instituting strong campaign finance and ethics reform while instituting permanent regional bodies to foster city-state cooperation and growth.

If Illinois can best us so much, and send one of their guys to the show, doesn't that really say it all?

Don't give Nutter a free pass on this one. He needs to address what he's going to to about Dougherty as head of RDA. How can "Mr. Ethics" leave such a thug who has no regard for diversity in such a top position? Time for Nutter to walk the talk.

So the question is do you actually have infromation that John Dougherty is doing something wrong at the RDA or are you just a hater?

Those among you who voted for Mr. Ethics for Mayor are in for a deception. Corruption Brady and his Democrats (Sounds like a band name!)already embraced the guy, and if you don't know what that means then you haven't finish high school. Unless publicly forced to do so, Nutter won't throw that rat out of RDA. In my modest private opinion, Philadelphia's future will mirror Camden, NJ. Thanks the unions and voters for it!

"Do you actually have information..." Do you HAVE information? Come ON, people. In every other large city, it's illegal to be the Democratic party treasurer AND the chair of a board that doles out goodies. It's called CONFLICT OF INTEREST.

And yes, the mantra of the Doc Dems is "it's legal in the city and state" but NEWSFLASH it's a violation of federal law.

Known as the HOBBES ACT, you can't trade property held in public trust for contributions. Other cities call that GRAFT.

Say it with me Doc-oids -- GRAFT. PAY TO PLAY IS ILLEGAL IT IS CORRUPT IT IS GRAFT.

Pretending to be ignorant of the law is not going to work so well as a defense homies. Just ask Fumo.

Rodeo is right -- Nutter needs to investigate the RDA's practices under Street, and yes, get the RDA to take back land that has been given away for pennies on the hundred dollar bill that the lame contributor/housing builder/redeveloper claims to be doing something with.

Then sell it to the open market for the best price. The city needs the money. PHA needs the money.

Selling land held in good faith by the city for renovation that ends up being the cause of blight and equity killing vacant lots and crumbling buildings is a scam.

Doc took out the timelines and the revesture or takeback clauses in the redevelopment agreements of his generous but not so clean contributors.

Universal springs to mind, as does Kenny Gamble, who've run an Ink supported shell game for years. Look at those redevelopment agreements that they hold with the RDA, and see how different those are from non-contributing RDA property recipients.

Note to Carl Greene and the legal Dept. of PHA: if you want to discredit Universal enough to prevent them from taking Hawthorne away from you (and you do more with your properties than they do with theirs) do a FOIA request of all the redevelopment agreements of the hundreds of bulk parcels conveyed to Universal.

It's just sad that PHA has to do this because the Ink is such a bought and paid for mouthpiece of the Dems. The no-criticism of the party environment of the Ink hippies makes for corruption. A healthy party invites inquiry.

As Nutter said, there is NO part of government that can't be run in a manner that is OPEN AND TRANSPARENT.

There is no RDA land recipient that should EVER get land who will not produce an annual report available for public inspection. PHA does a better job of opening up its financials and assets than Universal/Kenny Gamble.

It's a real shame that any inquiry had to start with Philly Mag since the Ink has a no questions asked policy with the RDA money pets. Is this really a party you want to have?

Doc is rotten and had the chance to be better, and said, "Nah! It took me so long to master 'rotten politics' why give it up now?"

What you end up with is an RDA that holds more land than it does anything with, that when it gives property away does so in a closed fashion that neighbors have little to no say in. The market has more checks and balances. Way more.

I'm sick of waiting for the Royal Theater properties up and down South St. to be developed. The reason they aren't is because Doc looks the other way and has for more than a decade.

Gamble gives money to the Dems, so Gamble and Universal can keep on making the Royal blocks of South St. the only run down part of South St. left.

Some vision. "You can keep my city a drug infested hole so long as you give the party money." Will Nutter take Doc and the hacks on?

Rules under Doc's RDA:

1. You can get property from us if you give Dems large kickbacks.

2. You can get RDA property if you owe huge back taxes. Screw school kids -- they don't vote.

3. You can get RDA property if you are in violation of your previous redevelopment agreements to build. Not a problem. We'll just rewrite the redevelopment agreement as many times as you need, no questions asked, no matter how many of the sad little community groups complain.

4. You can get RDA property even if you've defaulted on urban renewal/affordable housing loans and grants in the past.

5. You can get RDA property even if you've BEEN CONVICTED of federal fraud in the use of HOPE or any federal housing/renewal block grant program monies.

6. You can be part of a sluggish agency that prevents property from going back into the private market, into the hands of new owners willing to pay taxes, prevent the payoff of old gas, water, and property tax liens, cheating schools and safety, in order to get a few pennies to keep a critical mass of idiots on city council who kill jobs with novel taxes. You can prevent schools from being fully funded, causing us to have to beg from the state, by simply not collecting the $500 to $700 million in overdue taxes because it would force the RDA to liquidate all of its holdings before it could line up the sneaky deal land giveaway pay to play.

7. You can make RDA property pay zero in property taxes so as to stop the clock on collection of a small part of the liens, cheating schools. Again, do the little punks vote? Then screw 'em. You can get the BRT to zero out property tax assessments on the generous "affordable housing builders" even if they are building houses that are not affordable, or simply not building anything or doing much but hiring architects to draw pretty renderings that never come to fruition. Whose paying attention, right? Most journalists couldn't read a spreadsheet or create one with the data they requested. Just load them down with boxes of stuff, and call it a day. They'll be high by 5pm anyway.

7. You can still get RDA property if you have no annual report, or perform in weird ways far outside industry standard. The RDA will play stupid along with you, and say how sad it is that the Bush admin is cutting funds.

This might be WHY the Bush admin is cutting funds.

This might be WHY I'm begging everyone I know to vote for McCain. This federal housing/renewal money is almost entirely wasted but for a few showpiece developments. The best performer is the PHA, and the PHA itself doesn't manage its costs or assets like it should. For example, PHA would rather lay people off than just sell the difficult single plots or lots in the scattered site program. This has become a form of insanity to try to keep federal funds to get more money (which is allocated by number of properties). This is something that the RDA is part of. It aids and abets groups who hold and landbank run down properties like a publicly financed Rappoport.

Cut off the corruption funding at the source if you want Philly to get clean, legal, and sober. If you want to see waste fraud and abuse, look on www.hallwatch.org and look at the top property tax delinquents.

Whose #1? The RDA. It can't deal with it's holdings in a prompt, open, fair, equitable manner. Geez, who's going to give you way too much money to do that?

Where is there any corruption? WHOA I DON'T KNOW -- DO YOUSE SEE ANYTHING?

When Street borrowed money for NTI (on rotten terms) the press could not cope with the reality that this was a cover up to buy time for the city held, RDA held, and other public agencies like PIDC/PAID to just dangle a fat, juicy carrot of property in front of donors in the (false) hope that the agency might make a decision to convey that property.

SUCKAHS!

Look at the waterfront, the tops of the juicy carrots. Almost entirely empty, yet rocking out contributions all over the nation for a bad drug money accepting mayor and his similarly lead paint eating peers on Council.

Too bad the FBI killed that party, right Leonard Ross? What's that? It's so noisy in federal prison, that I can't hear you or your peers.

No corruption? Where is there corruption? Look at the whole waterfront debacle that resulted in huge donations to pols and NOT ONE ACRE of ACTUAL waterfront development.

That's why the private market has to be allowed to work again in Philly. That is, if you want the rest of the nation to see our city and think that Dems might have a clue on getting something built.

But hey, why not elect another republican? Maybe that explains why we elected Bush a second time -- all people have to do is say -- do you want your home to look like Philly, where the Democrats are in charge? Do you really want the government to own tract after tract of vacant property, blighted houses and warehouses, and just do nothing with them?

All this stuff was made illegal in NYC, illegal in Chicago, and illegal in San Fran. Result? World class cities where taxes don't have to be high, where you don't have to force people who work here to live here, because they want to anyway, with vibrant, green, magical waterfronts that people come from all over the world to see.

The Dems are their own worst enemy, and their apologists are enablers. Hear that, Inkmen? Grow a spine, win a prize, get a pay raise.

Here's Doc's ethics in action:

www.philly.com/inquirer/local/philadelphia/20080209_Union_sues_ethics_board.html

He won't allow the Electrician's Union to follow the simplest campaign finance requirements that have already been well underscored by the Supreme Court.

Yo, I guess that makes the District Attorney, the State Attorney General's Office, Nutter, and the Supreme Court all "hate-ahs." Come on. Do we have to live in a permanent state of enabling denial? If you guys insist, absolutely, buck insist that you have to go to prison...

... then so be it.

Let them slap a $1500 fine on every Doc union campaign finance violation. It all goes to fund ethics reform.

"Under the city code, a political-action committee could be subject to civil fines of up to $1,500 for each violation. Any person found in violation would be disqualified from holding any elected or appointed city office or employment, ever."

That ought to clean up a lot of conflict of interest in Philly. No more union business manager/RDA Chair/Dem City Cttee Treasurer all in one person for all time.

Gone, baby, gone. Let him be stupid. Don't try to educate him or his people.

www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/topdelinquents/mailingaddress

The RDA under Doc has 893 properties that owe some $18 million in overdue property taxes needed for schools, police, and street cleaning such as is customary in other large cities.

That number owed should be much higher, but the RDA has been requesting that properties not be assessed to pay taxes, even if that means the property must be zeroed out and pay nothing for the cost of its footprint.

In reality, the RDA cheats the city out of about $50 million, easily, each year, that it holds its properties and does nothing with them. Many RDA properties have been held for years.

Now is the time to get the RDA to auction off, open, competitively, any property that it has held for more than 3 years, or that owes property taxes, or that should owe property taxes.

There is no rule, no urban planning requirement, and no mechanism for meaningful community input to activate liquidation of RDA property.

Even though the city and the RDA could use the money, the RDA holds this property even if it kills equity for blocks around.

It's interesting to note that the new urban planner Altman noticed the RDA properties (Red Bell Brewery, Globe Dye Works) that have been vacant for years and that the RDA won't offer for competitive open sale.

The reason given is that there has to be a government use of the property. Oddly, this is the reason in areas where residents are desperate for legal jobs.

Take the R7. Take Amtrak to NY/NJ, and see the blight to the right and to the left. Most of it is held by either the RDA or PIDC/PAID, or the city generally.

For two mayoral terms there has been no activity whatsoever after a real estate boom.

Now, how do you explain that? What is Doc doing at the RDA if the RDA is doing so little?

Why do such questions hold so little interest to the local democrats, and the press? This seems like the most obvious source of blight there is.

Doc is part of the continuum of politicians who will fight the efforts of the city to collect property taxes.

Not sure why, because it creates a system where property tax payment is largely optional, and were schools suffer to have low interest loans against their revenue forced on them, essentially, by poorly performing agencies and politically linked owners of large tracts of land.

www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/delinqbyzip/index_html?skey=pcent&rkey=pcent

There should be no zip code that has double digit property tax nonpayment. The city can't sustain it.

However, MOST of the zips in the city have double digit percentages of property tax nonpayment by owners, some as high as half of all owners.

When the RDA gets its property taxes lowered or removed in a closed door process, then everyone wants the same treatment.

Doc is part of fostering the culture of nonproperty tax payment. Meanwhile, the dems such as Fattah, Evans, and the Street guild are screaming for school funding from people who don't live in the Philadelphia School District.

It's all just curiouser and curiouser to this observer. What's obvious is that the city can't keep doing things like this. Owners have to pay property taxes in full and on time. If NYC does this, why aren't we? In fact, every city and state mandates prompt property tax collection or starts foreclosure proceedings at once.

What could be the reason that Philly doesn't do this? Doc knows more about Philly property and land policy than anyone, so why not ask him?

www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/delinqbyzip/index_html?skey=pcent&rkey=pcent

There are people who want to buy this land and would pay off the old liens at closing. Seniors and the disabled enjoy full property tax freezes.

So what is the problem with foreclosing on this property, pronto?

This is all part of both the Fumo and the Doc heritage. It drives up property taxes for those who do pay, however.

Everyone needs to relax. As reported on last week's Inside Story, Ms. Jiminez stated that the 1st District voters are suffering due to the Senator's upcoming trial and the fact that John Dougherty will be receiving his target letter from the Feds in the next few weeks!!!

Everyone in the know, is aware that the Doc indictment is more compelling, more encompassing in its scope than this Fumo thing.

The word is that the US Attorney's Office will move to put Local 98 under supervison by an independent trustee,just like the Roofer's Union; it is coming my friends.

And this kook, this self absorbed idiot will finally be exposed for all of this past dealings we know about. Read the Gus Dougherty indictment and they are talking about JD with his shore properties. IT AIN'T GOING AWAY!!

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